The present invention relates to carbapenem antibiotics having a 2-aza substituent including azido, acylamino, amino, alkyl- and dialkylamino, triazolyl, triazolinyl, aziridinyl, and their pharmaceutically acceptable salt, ester, amide and anhydride derivatives.
Carbapenem antibiotics are known in the art, principally due to the discovery of thienamycin, which exhibits a therapeutically exciting and attractive broad spectrum of antibiotic activity, being of the formula: ##STR2## which is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,357.
The N-formimidoyl derivative of thienamycin, which is crystalline and a commercially more viable form of thienamycin, also exhibits a desirable broad spectrum of antibiotic activity and is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,047, which also discloses a method for its synthesis from thienamycin.
Despite the surprising and extraordinary broad spectrum antibiotic activity of thienamycin and its derivatives, there still exists a continuing need for new and more effective antibiotics. For unfortunately, there is not static effectiveness of any given antibiotic because continued wide scale usage selectively gives rise to resistant strains of pathogens. In addition, the known antibiotics suffer from the disadvantage of being effective only against certain types of microorganisms. Accordingly, the search for new antibiotics continues and this is particularly true in the carbapenem family of compounds.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,230 to B. G. Christensen et al. (which issued Jan. 3, 1984 and is assigned to Merck & Co. Inc.) discloses 6-(1'-hydroxyethyl)-3-substituted amino-1-azabicyclo[3.2.0]-hept-2-en-7-one carboxylic acids of the following formula: ##STR3## wherein R' and R" are independently selected from H, substituted and unsubstituted alkyl and aralkyl groups, or together form a substituted or unsubstituted cyclic group.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,453 to B. G. Christensen et al. (which issued Aug. 12, 1980, and is assigned to Merck & Co. Inc.) discloses 6-amido-3-substituted-amino-1-azabicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-en-7-one-2-carboxyli c acid of the formula: ##STR4## wherein R.sup.1 is hydrogen or acyl; and R' and R" are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, substituted or unsubstituted; alkyl and aralkyl, or together form a substituted or unsubstituted cyclic group.
The reference Heterocycles, Volume 22, No. 11, Pages 2487-2490, describes the reaction of C(3)-azido cephem with Grignard reagents to form triazines and with a variety of electron rich dipolarophiles to give C(3)- substituted amidines, imidates, iminolactones and aziridines. Carbapenems, however, are not specifically mentioned.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel class of antibiotics which are useful in animal and human therapy and in inanimate systems. These antibiotics are believed to be active against a broad range of pathogens which representatively include both Gram positive bacteria such as S. aureus, Strep. pyogenes, and B. subtilis, and Gram negative bacteria such as E. coli, Pseudomonas, Proteus morganii, Serratia, and Klebsiella. Further objects of this invention are to provide chemical processes for the preparation of such antibiotics and their nontoxic, pharmaceutically acceptable salts and derivatives; pharmaceutical compositions comprising such antibiotics; and to provide methods of treatment comprising administering such antibiotics and compositions when an antibiotic effect is indicated.